Arisitide: A Lightning rod ??????

[Taeger]

Ok, I'm listening to the Sunday morning propaganda shows and I keep hearing that Aristide is:

1) Responsible for Haitis woes
2) A thug
3) A lightning rod
4) Has mad MANY, MANY mistakes.
5) Is a thug.

Rarely do they say that he was democratically elected FAIRLY!!!!

I also keep hearing that Haiti needs "foreign investment".

My questions are:

1) Exactly WHAT are these mistakes that people keep referring to. Is the fact that he has resisted the WTO and that "foreign investment" responsible for his problems???? The congressional black caucaus is convinced that the CIA is behind this coup (the same as Venezuela).

2) Are these people spreading the "lightning rod" buzzword aware that a lighting rod takes an explosive force and conducts it harmlessly into the ground. These guys don't even know what a lightning rod IS!!!!!!!

[terisel]

1. Capitalism-the constant quest for New Markets n/t

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Here's an article that explains a lot

Paulaine Saint-Fleur..received 55 gourdes a day when she started..Now she makes 110 gourdes..but the wage increase has had little impact. "Now the cost of living is so much higher," she said, "that 110 gourdes is basically the same as 55 gourdes was."..she has no children, she makes more than most people at the factory, she lives in her mother's house, she lives close to the factory, and she has an uncle who helps out with expenses...she spends 95 gourdes per day on transportation and food for herself.

Last April, the Haitian government raised the national minimum wage from 36 gourdes a day ($2.40 when it was passed in 1994) to 70 gourdes per day (about $1.70 today). But even this paltry sum, lower than the cost of living for the frugal, is often overlooked even by the government itself.

"At the same time that President Aristide was campaigning for increased wages, he was ousted..."he was committed to raising the minimum wage to 72 gourdes" in 1994, "but after lengthy dialogue with the labor unions, domestic and foreign employers," etc., "the bill that finally went before Parliament raised the wage to 36 gourdes a day," from 15. The explanation continued...The president wanted to raise it to 72 gourdes this year, but was pressured to settle at 70 gourdes.

Even Marie-Claude Baillard, the president of the Association of Haitian Industries, acknowledges that the current minimum wage is too low, "in a sense, in terms of the cost of living." But "at the level of the enterprises, there is ferocious competition and the salaries must be competitive," she added. "It's not the most desirable situation," she said, but insisted that the salaries must be kept low in order to create more jobs in Haiti.

http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/Bracken.htm